Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart, and more Riverdale stars are blasting sexual assault claims against their cast members.
Over the weekend, anonymous Twitter accounts accused Cole, Lili, Vanessa Morgan, and KJ Apa of sexual misconduct on separate occasions.
It began with one woman’s claim Cole raped her at an NYU party in 2013.
Later, an account, which has now been deleted, admitted to lying about Vanessa, KJ, and Lili to prove how easy it is to make up stories.
Now Cole, Lili, and costar Madelaine Petsch are speaking out against the lies.
Cole addresses claims
Cole got the ball rolling by letting fans know the claims were false. He shared he takes the accusations very seriously. The actor and his team are working on getting to the root of the lies.
He went on to address the damage false accusations do to victims of sexual harassment or assault.
“False accusations do tremendous damage to victims of actual assault. Furthermore, I would never seek to silence anybody. I encourage that people look into the accusations themselves, as the events detailed were factually untrue. This seems to be the latest claim in a series of incidents seeking to baselessly cancel my castmates and me,” Cole shared in one of his three tweets.
Vanessa opted to retweet Cole’s messages as her way of speaking out on the false accusations.
Lili adds to Cole’s message
Lili also retweeted Cole’s words, but she added her own message too. The actress shared the anonymous account was created to spread false stories about Lili and her costars.
She discussed the effect such horrific lies can have on people’s lives, especially those who are survivors of sexual assault.
“I can’t think of something more twisted than lying about sexual assault. It invalidates the men and women who are brave enough to come forward with the truth.
“This kind of lie can ruin lives and careers — and I can call it a lie because the person who made the allegations already admitted that the stories were fabricated. We are looking into taking legal action. This kind of sick behavior only harms true survivors,” Lili tweeted.
Lili ended her message by saying the lie has been triggering for her because she is an avid supporter of assault survivors.
She also expressed her sincerest hope that the lie doesn’t prevent victims from sharing their truth in the future.
Madeline speaks out via Instagram Story
Although Madeline was not one of the accused Riverdale cast members, she used Instagram Story to stand up for her costars.
In a video, Madeline shared her disgust with false claims. She is a sexual assault survivor, so the subject is extremely personal to Madeline.
“This is the reason why I was scared to come forward and talk about my experiences. I was afraid that someone would tell me that I was lying or that it didn’t actually happen.
“For someone to go online and falsely accuse somebody of that only to come forward a couple of hours later and say that they were lying about four different people is such a serious thing to do,” the actress said.
Madeline ended her message by saying she hoped those who spread the lies, know the severity of what has been done. The lies take away the power from the victims and silence those who want to come forward.
It is not a joking matter.
Riverdale will return in January 2021 on The CW.
I can’t believe ppl would accuse innocent ppl and try to ruin their lives…you should be ashamed. Love Riverdale!!